Little-D goes to D-Land

We took Dallen to the happiest place on earth!! He had soooo much fun and so did the rest of us. One of the best things about Disneyland is that there is something for everyone. Dallen’s favorite part was that everything was Dallen sized!!


My favorite part was watching Dallen. I captured just a few of the many priceless expressions on his face throughout the day.




There was even a special aspect to Disneyland that day for Mark, the whole Texas and Alabama football teams, who were in town for the championship bowl game. That little white hat amongst all the big boys is Colt McCoy!!Of course everyone enjoyed being all together (minus Kellie, so sad)...






And not to forget the things that make Disneyland, well Disneyland:
the rides,









Waiting oh so patiently in line for Dumbo, which ended up not being worth it, he hated it!!the parade (Dallen's very favorite part),souvenirs,and photo ops...Checking out the family brickHigh-fiving Mickey (he had to get every single one and believe me there are lots!!)Michelle brought baby Chloe along for the day, what a treat!! She was such a good sport :)

All tuckered out!!At the end of the day we were all so exhausted but had the most wonderful day at the happiest place on earth.

The Joy of Christmas

Christmas morning with a one year old is a real treat!! Santa brought big D a little tikes basketball hoop and all morning Dallen was all about the balls he got, not just basketballs, but footballs too :)
"Where's the ball?" Another one of Dallen's favorite gifts was not actually his. He was so intrigued by Uncle Scotty's new skateboard...

Eventually Uncle Scotty wanted his present back and got something else to distract Dallen, unfortunately it was not quite as, well, stable!!
This picture looks so sad, but its totally funny because he was not hurt at all :)
Of course he got lots of other presents like cars and trains and candy and clothes, etc...I love this picture, it just says "Hey Mom, what'd I get?"Sometimes he wasn't interested in presents at all and just wanted to play with the dog. I call this the 'dancing with the dog' sequence:

All in all it was a fantastic Christmas morning full of lots of joyful faces, like this one...Later that afternoon we went to my Grandma's house as we always do for more gifts and a yummy lunch. However, this year was extra special. I asked my Grandpa if I could sing a Christmas song before we opened presents. I wanted to take the opportunity, as Elder Bednar counseled, to share my testimony with my family. It got the whole family started and everyone took a turn sharing their thoughts and feelings regarding the holiday spirit. There was not a dry eye in the room. It was a Christmas I will not soon forget. Hope you all had a Christmas as merry as mine :)